Page 93 of Open To Negotiation

“Theo, tell me what’s going on.” I took a step closer to him, and he finally turned to look at me. It stopped me in my tracks.

His eyes had lost any warmth they used to hold when looking at me, the grey was cutting and my heart started beating faster.

“I need some time away from this,” he said as he looked down at me.

“This?” I asked in a quiet voice.

“Us. Our relationship.” His voice and face were still void of any emotion.

“What are you talking about?” I’d known something was wrong when he missed our dinner but this was not where I thought this would be going.

“I’ve reevaluated some things recently, I need some time.”

“Reevaluated? What are you talking about, Theo? We were fine two days ago and now you want time. What does that even mean?”

None of this was making sense. When he’d woken me up and fucked me the other night something felt off but I assumed he had some work things on his mind. When I woke up and he was gone this feeling of dread took hold in my chest, but I’d been trying to ignore it.

Because nothing had been wrong. He’d left the morning before, kissed me and told me he loved me.

Nothing had been off.

And now this.

“You told me you loved me and now you’re reevaluating.” My voice broke as I shook my head.

“I don’t want to do this now, Quinn. When I get back from London—”

“You told me you don’t even know when you’re going to be back!” He looked at me with a slight glare, like he was annoyed I’d interrupted. I honestly wasn’t sure who this man was in front of me. “Are we done then? Are you ending this?”

“I don’t fucking know, Quinn. I just need some goddamn space.”

I took a step back and crossed my arms over my chest. I stood there blinking back tears as his eyes moved from me to the space above my head.

“Then tell me you don’t love me anymore.” I watched as he set his glass down and started to grab his keys and jacket.

“This is not space, Quinn.” He slipped his jacket on as I took a few steps toward him, unshed tears in my eyes. I noticed something pass over his face but it was gone before I could identify it.

“I don’t care. You want to have some fucking space. Fine. It’s yours. But tell me you don’t love me anymore.

“Tell me that everything we had was a lie and that you can just walk away like we were nothing. Like I meant nothing to you. That you’re throwing this all away without even giving me the decency of a conversation.” He started to walk toward the elevator and I moved to the doorway of his office.

I couldn’t even understand what was going on, how we had gotten here.

“Arthur is downstairs. He’ll drive you to your place,” he said as he fixed his cufflinks, without looking at me.

My heart broke at the idea of going to my apartment, I hadn’t been there in weeks.

“Don’t walk away, Theo. Please.” My voice broke. “Talk to me or tell me you don’t love me anymore but don’t just walk away.”

I stood in the doorway of his office and watched as he got on the elevator, looking down at his phone rather than at me. A few tears slipped out as the door closed.

Theo took my heart with him.

And I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be getting it back.

Missed call from Asher

Missed call from Noah